JDA Adds Proven SaaS and Services Experience to Leadership Team
Desikan Madhavanur named Chief Development Officer, Duane Kotsen appointed SVP, Global Consulting and Education Services, and Sharon Mills promoted to Chief Customer Officer
JDA Software Group, Inc. today announced the addition of several dynamic leaders to its executive team, whose proven industry expertise will help power the next generation of JDA’s solutions to deliver a digital supply chain and maximum value for its leading customers. Desikan Madhavanur has been named to the new position of Chief Development Officer, Duane Kotsen has been appointed senior vice president (SVP), Global Consulting and Education Services, and Sharon Mills has been promoted to Chief Customer Officer.
“The demand for our software offerings is strong, our team continues to lead in the digitalization of the supply chain, and our global customers are entrusting us as they drive their transformation initiatives,” said JDA Chief Executive Officer Girish Rishi. “Our announcement today, appointing new leaders to the management team, is another step forward to further strengthen our ability to deliver the supply chain of the future and execute beyond our customers’ expectations. Desikan, Duane and Sharon bring impressive capabilities in driving agile innovation, ensuring customer success and building high performance teams. Our 4,300 JDA associates welcome them with open arms, as we embrace and share our core values with them: obsessively delivering customer value, relentless learning and innovation, and collaborating candidly and respectfully, each and every day.”
Desikan Madhavanur Named Executive Vice President (EVP), Chief Development Officer
Desikan Madhavanur has been appointed to the newly-created position of EVP and Chief Development Officer. Madhavanur will be responsible for the company’s product solution strategy, development and delivery, with a charter to invest in and develop JDA’s market-leading solutions across supply chain planning, execution and retail while harnessing the collective power of cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), analytics and big data to bring next generation Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to market that deliver a more flexible and autonomous supply chain, highly actionable insights and unlock massive customer value.
Madhavanur joins JDA from CA Technologies, where he served as SVP and business center head for Data Center Orchestration. There, he had P&L and growth responsibility for a $1.2 billion business unit focused on driving modern application delivery, deployment, management, user adoption and profitable monetization. Madhavanur’s successes included transitioning older legacy products to modern software architectures, developing a new business model to move products from a license to subscription service, and transforming the product release process from waterfall releases to Agile sprints while meeting release commitments. Prior to CA, Madhavanur served as GVP of Engineering, Emerging Technologies and general manager of Products & Strategy at E2Open. There he pivoted the company’s revenue model from stand-alone applications to platform services. He also orchestrated product strategy and vision by managing long term product roadmaps and driving execution success for E2open’s cloud solutions, driving user adoption and profitable revenue growth.
Madhavanur has also held leadership positions at JP Morgan and i2 Technologies (later acquired by JDA), where he spent four years as the lead product manager for collaborative supply and demand planning solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Annamalai University in India, a master’s degree in systems and industrial engineering from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the University of Texas.
Duane Kotsen Appointed Senior Vice President, Global Consulting and Education Services
JDA has also appointed Duane Kotsen to the role of SVP, Global Consulting and Education Services. In this role, Kotsen will lead a global team of 1100+ expert consultants, strategists and education professionals who help customers maximize their supply chain investments by successfully designing, launching and implementing JDA software within their organizations.
Kotsen joins JDA from Deltek, where he was SVP of Global Consulting Services, developing a tiered implementation methodology that significantly improved margins and customer outcomes. Kotsen has previous experience with JDA, having served as the company’s SVP of America Services from 2011-13 and SVP of Global Consulting Services from 2009-11. In both roles, he leveraged his span of responsibility to integrate sales and delivery models across the services teams, enabling improved customer satisfaction and outcomes. Kotsen was also SVP of Global Services at QAD (from 2006-2009) and at PeopleSoft (2002-2005), and had positions at Extrarpise Group and Oracle. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer and information sciences at Leigh University and an MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.
Sharon Mills Promoted to Chief Customer Officer
JDA also announced that Sharon Mills has been promoted to the position of Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at JDA. Mills assumes the role formerly held by Todd Johnson, who has been promoted to a senior leadership role in the company’s product organization. As CCO, Mills will be responsible for leading the company’s customer experience, ensuring that JDA relentlessly delivers real results for customers while increasing brand satisfaction and loyalty. Mills will work cross-functionally to drive customer-focused initiatives that align the company’s customer touchpoints to ensure they are obtaining the maximum support, service and value from their JDA investments. Prior to being appointed CCO, Mills worked as group vice president, Professional Services at JDA, leading the company’s global teams for strategic services, education services, program management office and services engineering. Since joining JDA in 1998, Mills has also held leadership positions in the company’s strategic services and product organizations. She came to JDA with a solid retail background as General Merchandise Manager for the Delstar Companies. Mills has a bachelor’s degree with a dual major in mathematics and philosophy from Calvin College.
Along with these changes, the company also announced that Cindy Howton, EVP, Global Consulting Services and Serge Massicotte, EVP and Chief Technology Officer, have elected to depart the company to pursue other interests.
About JDA Software Group, Inc.
JDA Software is the leading provider of seamless supply chain planning and execution solutions for retailers, manufacturers, logistics providers and wholesale distributors. Our unmatched solution portfolio enables our clients to reduce costs, increase profitability and improve visibility so they can deliver on customer promises every time. More than 4,000 global customers run JDA, including 73 of the top 100 retailers, 71 of the top 100 consumer goods companies, and 13 of the top 16 3PLs. With JDA, you can plan to deliver. blueyonder.com
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JDA Software Group, Inc.
15059 N Scottsdale Rd, Ste 400
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
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